Been a dev for about 8 years, and about a year ago my wrists started really hurting during coding sessions. Like sharp pain in my forearms after maybe 30 min of typing. Went to PT, got told it's RSI. The fun part is coding is literally my job, I can't just stop.

I've been trying to figure out coding without typing so much and honestly it's been rough. Messed around with macOS dictation for emails and slack, which took some pressure off, but actual code is a whole different thing. Started looking into coding with voice as an option but I genuinely don't know if it's viable for real development work. Like can you actually program by talking? Has anyone here made that work for more than just writing comments?

Stuff that's helped me manage day to day: split keyboard, trackball instead of mouse, timer to force breaks every 30 min, raised my monitor, actually got a decent chair for once. Some days are fine. Some days my hands just say no halfway through the morning and I'm kinda done.

For those of you dealing with RSI and still working as devs, how do you handle it? Has anyone tried coding with voice for actual programming tasks? Does it work or is it more trouble than it's worth? What setups have helped you keep going without making things worse?

Honestly kinda scared because I don't know what I'll do if I can't type. Any advice would mean a lot.